Easy Homemade Root Beer: Create a Fun Family Tradition Using Dry Ice

One of my greatest memories growing up was mama's homemade root beer. She used a large, plastic, black cauldron to mix her brew, which would bubble and pop and let loose a layer of white fog that would spill over the edge of the cauldron and rest on the countertop before trickling to the floor and evaporating from sight. This became a favorite experience of all the children in our family, especially at Halloween time.

Mama's homemade root beer is relatively simple to make and is always a crowd pleaser.

The basic ingredients are:

1 - 5oz bottle of Root Beer flavoring

1 - 4lbs bag of sugar (more or less to taste)

5 gallons water

15 lbs dry ice.

The recipe can be made in smaller batches using one ounce of flavoring to make one gallon of root beer with slightly less than 2 cups sugar and 2-3 lbs dry ice.

Mix the root beer flavoring, sugar and water together until the sugar is completely dissolved. Put the mixture into a container with at least twice the capacity as the liquid being used, then add the dry ice and watch the show.

You can mix the base ahead of time and add the dry ice in time for the party. It takes about an hour for the dry ice to carbonate the root beer. If you refrigerate the base, the dry ice will last longer, but it will not produce as much fog.

On the Leeners website which sells root beer kits and supplies, they suggest that the type of sweetener used can make a big difference in the taste. If you are so inclined, you can experiment with different sugars and sweeteners such as, molasses, honey, brown sugar, or demerara sugar. Also, the quantity and brand of root beer flavoring can make a difference in the taste. Mama always liked Hires best, but I don't think they make it anymore. Some recipes that I found online used twice as much flavoring as mama's recipe.

The root beer can be "brewed" in any clean, large plastic container. For big parties mama would buy a new plastic trashcan, wash it out well, and use that as her punch bowl. One time she used a large clear storage container and we could watch the bubbles forming under the fog.

Contributor, Lesa, on allrecipes.com has a homemade root beer recipe similar to mama's, and she had a great idea for the container. She suggests using a large insulated drink cooler, the kind with a spigot used to drain off the melted ice. The cooler will help keep the root beer cold longer. The lid should be left ajar to let the gas out, but it helps keep things floating in the air out of your drink, and the spigot can be used to serve the root beer. This would not make as much of a mess as mama's ladle.

As the mixture gets colder, the root beer will begin to freeze around the blocks of dry ice. You should break this loose with a large spoon or spatula. If the dry ice gets covered in frozen root beer the carbonation process will slow down. The frozen bits taste wonderful like a root beer slush'. The frozen root beer is brown, but the dry ice is pure white. Be sure that any pure white chucks are put back in the mixture. Be careful not to eat or drink any of the small bits of dry ice that chip off when you are breaking the root beer slush free of the block.

There are many recipes for homemade root beer on the web, but most of them use yeast and take time to ferment in order to produce the carbonation. Mama said that grandma used to make it with yeast, but mama didn't like the taste of the yeast method as well as she did the dry ice method.

David B. Fankhauser, PhD, Professor of Biology and Chemistry at Clermont College in Batavia Ohio, has an easy version of the yeast recipe on his website . He says that the yeast method creates a small amount of alcohol in the process of carbonation. There is not enough alcohol for most people to worry about, between 0.35 and 0.5%, but those with medical or religious reasons to avoid alcohol should be careful. There is no alcohol created with the dry ice method.

Dry ice can be very dangerous if not handled correctly. For that reason, it is important to supervise any children around the dry ice. Dryiceinfo.com says dry ice is extremely cold, -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit and suggests handling with care, "...wear protective cloth or leather gloves whenever touching it. An oven mitt or towel will work... prolonged contact with the skin will freeze cells and cause injury similar to a burn."

It is also important to keep the dry ice tightly wrapped in an insulated container to keep it from disappearing. Dry ice is actually frozen carbon dioxide. It doesn't melt like regular ice, but instead turns directly back into gas. That is how it carbonates the root beer. However, that is also why it doesn't last long at room temperatures.

Dryiceinfo.com also explains that it is not a good idea to keep your dry ice in the freezer because the extremely cold temperature of the dry ice can confuse the thermostat causing it to shut off.

Most large grocery stores carry root beer flavoring in the baking isle with other food flavorings and extracts. The dry ice may be a little harder to find. Some rural grocery stores carry it for fishermen to keep their fish cold. A good place to start looking is the yellow pages of your phonebook under dry ice. Dryiceinfo.com says to be sure you get food grade dry ice for your root beer.

One other caution, be sure not to try to breath in the fog. It is pure carbon dioxide and has no oxygen. Breathing in the fog is like suffocating yourself.

I'm glad I could share my memories of mama's homemade root beer with you and I hope you can share the recipe with those you care about. Start a new tradition in your family today and make your own memories.